The Congress on Thursday smelt a scam in the implementation of the e-Vidhan paperless legislature system costing Rs 254 crore.
Congress spokesperson Ramesh Babu released documents to question the legislature secretariat’s decision to go for a Rs 254 crore e-Vidhan project, which he said could have been done at a much lower cost.
Babu said that the 2017-18 budget had a mention of the e-Vidhan project estimated to cost Rs 60.84 crore and an initial grant of Rs 20 crore was provided.
“Later, the Centre announced the National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA) and offered a 60:40 cost-sharing formula. In August 2018, the then chief secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar wrote to the Centre expressing the state’s willingness to be onboarded onto NeVA. However, going through NeVA would not have filled the pockets of officers. So, officials have misled the Assembly Speaker to get the project awarded to Keonics,” Babu explained.
The Congress leader said he has raised the issue with Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri twice.
“The Speaker himself should specify if he is fully aware of the details. Such a big scam is taking place right under his nose. I’m not accusing him of anything. But, he is responsible for safeguarding public money,” he said, threatening that he would file a Lokayukta complaint if no action is taken.